Fencing the Border: Boeing's High-Tech Plan Falters by Joseph Richey, Special to Corp WatchJuly 9th, 2007
A 28-mile stretch of the Sonoran desert that straddles the U.S.-Mexico border west of the city of Nogales, Arizona, is a sun-baked battleground. Pronghorn antelope, javelina, rattlers, a few pigmy owls, and even jaguars compete for scarce resources amidst the saguaro, mesquite, and prickly pear. Also struggling for survival in the parched landscape are hundreds of migrants who hike the miles of uncharted northbound trails and roads pursued by border patrol officers, security contractors, and law enforcement agents. Many of the would-be immigrants are captured, processed and deported; some are identified as criminal aliens and detained; others make it into the U.S. to take low-wage jobs; and hundreds more die every year in the searing desert heat. A new predator is on the horizon. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has issued task orders to physically and electronically seal this stretch of the desert under a multi-billion dollar contract named the Secure Border Initiative Net (SBInet) to curb the flow of undocumented immigrants, drugs, and potential terrorists by 2013. This first $20 million pilot phase, which is named Project 28 after the length of this part of the desert that it is supposed to cover, was to be completed by mid-June 2007.
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Thursday, July 19, 2007
The “Canadian Ministers” of Hamid Karzai’s Afghan government
The “Canadian Ministers” of Hamid Karzai’s Afghan government By Guy Charron4 July 2007
The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) has deployed a Strategic Advisory Team (SAT) composed of some 15 people to Kabul with the mandate of working “directly with the Afghan government” to impose the neo-colonial agenda of the western powers. Canada is a key participant in the US-NATO military occupation of Afghanistan and a bulwark of the US-installed puppet government of Hamid Karzai—a government composed of warlords guilty of horrific crimes against the Afghan people and that is detested by many both for its corruption and for being in Washington’s pocket. The CAF participated in the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and since the summer of 2005 has been in the forefront of the fight against the Taliban insurgency in the country’s south. Dubbed “Operation Angus” by the CAF, SAT’s role complements and broadens Canada’s role in propping up the Karzai government. Despite its military origins, SAT exerts principally a political function. In the words of the Canadian Ministry of Defence, “the teams are embedded in their partner Afghan Government ministries and agencies.”
Click here to read more
The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) has deployed a Strategic Advisory Team (SAT) composed of some 15 people to Kabul with the mandate of working “directly with the Afghan government” to impose the neo-colonial agenda of the western powers. Canada is a key participant in the US-NATO military occupation of Afghanistan and a bulwark of the US-installed puppet government of Hamid Karzai—a government composed of warlords guilty of horrific crimes against the Afghan people and that is detested by many both for its corruption and for being in Washington’s pocket. The CAF participated in the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and since the summer of 2005 has been in the forefront of the fight against the Taliban insurgency in the country’s south. Dubbed “Operation Angus” by the CAF, SAT’s role complements and broadens Canada’s role in propping up the Karzai government. Despite its military origins, SAT exerts principally a political function. In the words of the Canadian Ministry of Defence, “the teams are embedded in their partner Afghan Government ministries and agencies.”
Click here to read more
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
U.S. Border Fence Protrudes Into Mexico
By ALICIA A. CALDWELL. The Associated Press. June 29, 2007
COLUMBUS, N.M. -- The 1.5-mile barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border was designed to keep cars from illegally crossing into the United States. There's just one problem: It was accidentally built on Mexican soil. Now embarrassed border officials say the mistake could cost the federal government more than $3 million to fix.
(Click here to read more)
COLUMBUS, N.M. -- The 1.5-mile barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border was designed to keep cars from illegally crossing into the United States. There's just one problem: It was accidentally built on Mexican soil. Now embarrassed border officials say the mistake could cost the federal government more than $3 million to fix.
(Click here to read more)
SANE: An Islamophobic group attempts to banish Islam from the U.S.
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali. 17 June 2007
Stepping into the foot prints of Daniel Pipes, Islamophobist and founder of anti-Islam and anti-Muslim forums such as Middle East Forumand Campus Watch, another pro-Israeli Islamophobist, David Yerushalmi, has established an anti-Islam group known with the acronym SANE: the Society of Americans for National Existence. The sole objective of the group is banishing Islam from the US by making "adherence to Islam" punishable by 20 years in prison.
(Click here to read more)
Stepping into the foot prints of Daniel Pipes, Islamophobist and founder of anti-Islam and anti-Muslim forums such as Middle East Forumand Campus Watch, another pro-Israeli Islamophobist, David Yerushalmi, has established an anti-Islam group known with the acronym SANE: the Society of Americans for National Existence. The sole objective of the group is banishing Islam from the US by making "adherence to Islam" punishable by 20 years in prison.
(Click here to read more)
Commencement Message to Indigenous Law Grads: "Pick your path carefully"
MNN. June 17, 2007.
The following question came to MNN from an Indigenous law grad, “...do you feel comfortable passing yourself off as a legal authority?” Yeah! On our law! Obviously this law graduate has been totally indoctrinated. He assumes that law is the exclusive preserve of “experts”. Law is based on prior and informed consent of the people concerned, not on the power to conquer, oppress and control. In a real democracy law is made and known by all. It’s not based on authority. There is a presumption that ignorance of the law is no excuse. So ignorance of our original law and inherent jurisdiction by the colonists is no excuse for their criminality.
(Click here to read more)
The following question came to MNN from an Indigenous law grad, “...do you feel comfortable passing yourself off as a legal authority?” Yeah! On our law! Obviously this law graduate has been totally indoctrinated. He assumes that law is the exclusive preserve of “experts”. Law is based on prior and informed consent of the people concerned, not on the power to conquer, oppress and control. In a real democracy law is made and known by all. It’s not based on authority. There is a presumption that ignorance of the law is no excuse. So ignorance of our original law and inherent jurisdiction by the colonists is no excuse for their criminality.
(Click here to read more)
Latin America: Black Women on the Bottom Rung
By Diego Cevallos. MEXICO CITY, Jun 19 (IPS)
There are at least 75 million black women in Latin America and the Caribbean, but those who occupy high-level political or public administration posts number less than 50. As activists pointed out to IPS this week, black women are at the very bottom of the social ladder in this region.
"The inequality suffered by Afro-descendants is plain to see. There are few or no spaces where we are decision-makers. Our situation is one of the worst," said Dorotea Wilson, head of the Red de Mujeres Afrolatinoamericanas, Afrocaribeñas y de la Diáspora (Network of Afro-Caribbean and Afro-Latino Women), made up of groups of black women activists from 33 countries.
(Click here to read more)
There are at least 75 million black women in Latin America and the Caribbean, but those who occupy high-level political or public administration posts number less than 50. As activists pointed out to IPS this week, black women are at the very bottom of the social ladder in this region.
"The inequality suffered by Afro-descendants is plain to see. There are few or no spaces where we are decision-makers. Our situation is one of the worst," said Dorotea Wilson, head of the Red de Mujeres Afrolatinoamericanas, Afrocaribeñas y de la Diáspora (Network of Afro-Caribbean and Afro-Latino Women), made up of groups of black women activists from 33 countries.
(Click here to read more)
Vancouver: Mexicans Denied Entry to Canada for 'Looking Poor'
by EMIR OLIVARES ALONSO; 26/06/2007 - La Jornada.
[NOII note: this is a rough translation, click here for original article]
Under the criteria of appearance, Canadian immigration authorities denied entry to three Mexicans who were trying to enter the country as tourists, because "they didn't appear to have money and looked very poor".
The co-nationals suffered humiliation during more than 24 hours, one of the victims said. He said that authorities did strip searches and revisions (searches?) of their belongings at least four times and then took them tothe Vancouver police headquarters (detention centre?) where they were handcuffed, booked and detained.
(Cick here to read more)
[NOII note: this is a rough translation, click here for original article]
Under the criteria of appearance, Canadian immigration authorities denied entry to three Mexicans who were trying to enter the country as tourists, because "they didn't appear to have money and looked very poor".
The co-nationals suffered humiliation during more than 24 hours, one of the victims said. He said that authorities did strip searches and revisions (searches?) of their belongings at least four times and then took them tothe Vancouver police headquarters (detention centre?) where they were handcuffed, booked and detained.
(Cick here to read more)
62 migrant deaths in US detention since 2004
New Scrutiny as Immigrants Die in Custody
By NINA BERNSTEIN. June 26, 2007
Sandra M. Kenley was returning home from her native Barbados in 2005 when she was swept into the United States’ fastest-growing form of incarceration, immigration detention.
Seven weeks later, Ms. Kenley died in a rural Virginia jail, where she had complained of not receiving medicine for high blood pressure. She was one of 62 immigrants to die in administrative custody since 2004, according to a new tally by Immigration and Customs Enforcement that counted many more deaths than the 20 previously known.
(Click here to read more)
By NINA BERNSTEIN. June 26, 2007
Sandra M. Kenley was returning home from her native Barbados in 2005 when she was swept into the United States’ fastest-growing form of incarceration, immigration detention.
Seven weeks later, Ms. Kenley died in a rural Virginia jail, where she had complained of not receiving medicine for high blood pressure. She was one of 62 immigrants to die in administrative custody since 2004, according to a new tally by Immigration and Customs Enforcement that counted many more deaths than the 20 previously known.
(Click here to read more)
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